Data center malfunction responsible for card, debit card chaos

Credit and debit card purchases and cash withdrawals were affected for several hours Saturday

Published on Monday, August 12, 2019

39shares

A data center malfunction left bank customers across Mexico
unable to make purchases and withdraw cash with their credit and debit cards for
several hours on Saturday.

Prosa, an electronic transaction services firm that processes card payments for several banks, said an electrical fault at its data center in Santa Fe, Mexico City, caused the widespread failure of payment terminals and ATMs.

Bank customers were also unable to make online purchases using credit and debit cards.

Prosa said its services were restored just before 11:00pm on Saturday.

Customers of Banorte, HSBC, Invex, Santander, Scotiabank and
Banjército
were among those affected by the widespread system failure.

BBVA Bancomer and Banamex, which have the most cards in circulation in Mexico, said that their systems were not affected and that customers were able to withdraw cash at ATMs.

However, the two banks’ cards were rejected at point-of-sale terminals.

Customers took to social media to express frustration at their inability to make payments and access cash, while chaotic scenes were reported at supermarkets, where many shoppers were forced to abandon carts filled with groceries.

Many businesses announced on social media that they could only accept cash payments.

Sources from Prosa told the newspaper El Financiero that it was the first time that a data center malfunction had caused a problem of the magnitude seen on Saturday.

It looks like you are opening this page from the Facebook App. This article needs to be opened in the browser.

iOS: Tap the three dots in the top right, then tap on "Open in Safari".

Android: Tap the Settings icon (it looks like three horizontal lines), then tap App Settings, then toggle the "Open links externally" setting to On (it should turn from gray to blue).

Since we erected a paywall at Mexico News Daily one year ago, subscription revenues have enabled us to increase our news coverage, offer more feature stories and give us a firm financial foundation on which to operate. By subscribing, you can support our efforts to provide a greater variety of news and stories from Mexico. Please click here to subscribe.